INDEPENDENCE, Kan. - The Independence Men’s Basketball team kept up their winning ways as they once again defended home court Wednesday night, as they knocked off Barton 81-76. 

In a matchup between two of the KJCCC’s best, it was an evenly fought game for the majority of the night as there were 10 ties and 11 lead changes throughout, with the largest lead by either team being only 10. 

Barton jumped out to their biggest lead of the night early in the first half when they scored the first four points of the contest. After a quick bounce back from the Pirates, the two teams traded buckets for the majority of the first half before back to back three pointers from Diezel Davis and Trae Lewis pushed the Pirate lead out to five at the 7:44 mark in the first half. After a David Wilson dunk, the Pirates pushed their lead to seven, but the Cougars ripped off seven straight points of their own to knot the game up at 28 with four and a half minutes in the first half. 

After Barton had taken a one point lead at the two minute mark, the Pirates scored the final six points of the half, fueled by three trips to the foul line, to take a 40-35 lead into the halftime break. 

Independence continued to attack in the second half and pushed out to their largest lead of the game at the half way mark of the second half, as they led 58-48. Barton quickly responded with eight unanswered points to cut the lead down to two. The game continued to see-saw back and forth with the Pirates maintaining a single digit lead for the duration of the evening. With a minute left, Barton cut the lead down to four, but the Pirates were able to knock down clutch free throws to pull away, going 7-8 from the charity strip over the final minute to eventually win by five. 

The Pirates had a nice night shooting as they held slight advantages from the field, shooting 44% to Barton’s 40%, and from deep, shooting 28% to Barton’s 18%. The Cougars did have a solid advantage on the glass, outrebounding the Pirates 44-32, but ultimately the Pirates were able to turn 19 Barton turnovers into 21 points that made a big difference. 

Sterling Knox and David Wilson paced the Indy offense as they both finished with 19 points, while Knox added six assists. Trashaun Combs-Pierce also finished in double figures with 10 points, while adding five rebounds, four blocks and four steals. Lonnie Bass Jr had a nice game off of the bench as well, finishing with 10 points and a team high nine rebounds. 

The Pirates, now 7-2 in KJCCC play, will shift their focus to last year's KJCCC champions, Cowley. Indy will travel to Arkansas City to take on the Tigers on Saturday, with tip-off set for 3:00 PM.